UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

180 Events from 180 Years: 1830s

Western Reserve College held commencement exercises for its first graduating class of four students. Pictured here is the page from the faculty minutes discussing commencement.

1831

Charles B. Storrs was inaugurated as Western Reserve College's first president.

1832

John Sykes Fayette was the first documented African-American student enrolled at Western Reserve College.

1833

College exercises were suspended for 2 weeks in December in order that all students could attend a religious revival. The students were required to attend 3 sermons each day. Pictured here is a page from the faculty minutes approving the action.

1834

George E. Pierce was inaugurated as Western Reserve College's second president.

1835

The course of study at Western Reserve College was organized into 5 areas: Classical; Mathematical & Physical; English & Rhetorical; Intellectual, Moral, and Political; Biblical and Religious. All students took the same course of study and there were no electives.

1836

The oldest endowed professorship at the University, the Oviatt Professorship of Sacred Rhetoric (now the Oviatt Professorship of English) was endowed by Heman Oviatt, pictured here.

1837

The Western Reserve College Alumni Association was established, "whose object shall be to cultivate acquaintance & friendship, to form & perpetuate a record of the residence & employment of each, & to promote the interests of the College." Pictured here is a page from the minutes.

1838

Duties of the Western Reserve College faculty were enumerated in the Laws, " …It shall be the duty of the Faculty faithfully to instruct the students in the several branches of learning taught in this College, to encourage them in the practice of virtue and piety, to reprove and warn the offending, and promptly and impartially to administer the laws established by the Trustees."

1839

The first Western Reserve College alumni directory (in Latin) was published in the 1839/40 Catalogue.

Information was compiled by staff of the Case Western Reserve Archives, February 2006.